get highest number

[Michael Kay]

> this makes it slightly faster, but still takes around 30 seconds...
> 
> Then it is probably better to retieve all IDs and to process 
> the max value in my application afterwards.
> 

Or switch to a better XQuery processor. I find it hard to imagine why a
product should take noticeably longer to evaluate max(//@id) than it takes
to evaluate //@id.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/